Home » Editorial » Looking for the perfect diet? Play video games for 3 minutes

Looking for the perfect diet? Play video games for 3 minutes

Once upon a time, people strapped into a large rubber band that purportedly vibrated the weight off. Eventually, people decided to stop eating carbs, miraculously replacing their lost carbs with desirable fatty foods like bacon. On the opposite end of the spectrum, certain people began partaking in juice cleanses involving a mixture of maple syrup, lemon juice, and not eating anything else for a couple weeks. Basically, everyone is always looking for a way to avoid eating a balanced diet and going to the gym. If you’re one of those people: good news! A new study has found that playing video games, like Tetris, for just three minutes can reduce food cravings up to 24%.

A theory called Elaborated Intrusion suggests that our cravings are the spawn of visual imagery that breach our brains. So, if one can reduce the image intrusions, then the cravings should somewhat subside.

Plymouth University psychologists — Jessica Skorka-Brown, Jackie Andrade, and Jon May — took to the task and began an experiment where two groups were tasked with playing Tetris. One group played the game for three minutes, while another group ultimately never got play, but instead sat in front of a screen and were told the game was loading.

Before the experiment began, both groups experienced similar levels of cravings. However, after just three minutes, the researchers found that the playing group had cravings reduce by up to 24% compared to the group that was stuck in loading limbo. The results support Elaborated Intrusion, suggesting that a visual memory load will reduce cravings. Basically, you’ll be too distracted to think about stuff you want to eat. That won’t get you in shape, but it might at least prevent you from doing further damage.

Of course, the biggest secret to dieting is that if you get to the gym to lift weights and do cardio, you can relax a little more with what you eat, because it’ll be used as fuel if you time it right. Or, you can drink weird sludge named after food made out of people.